Cheques belonging to the Fine Gael MEP Ms Mary Banotti were placed in the Ansbacher Deposits as part of a currency exchanging scheme, according to the inspectors' report. But Ms Banotti is not identified in the report as a client of Ansbacher.
In the transcript of interviews with the former Haughey Boland accountant, Mr Jack Stakelum, the inspectors asked how three cheques belonging to the MEP came to be in an account in Guinness & Mahon named Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust re College Trustees.
Mr Stakelum said Ms Banotti was a close friend. His financial services firm, Businesses Enterprises Ltd, looked after aspects of her affairs as an MEP. He said all MEPs had to have a secretarial company to which all expenses were paid.
He said he provided these services to Ms Banotti for no fee. Ms Banotti, according to the transcript, told the inspectors she must have passed the cheques to Mr Stakelum.
Mr Stakelum said he wasn't sure but he believed what may have happened was not that Ms Benotti was paying money to his company but that when she was in his office she had said she needed Irish cash. He would then have exchanged Irish pounds for the Belgian franc cheques Ms Banotti had, and then passed the cheques on to the late Mr Des Traynor "because they were foreign currency. That was foreign currency that you might treasure as opposed to Irish pounds."
He said he gave foreign currency to Mr Traynor because it was "rare". Mr Traynor would put the foreign currency Mr Stakelum gave him on deposit. Normally he had been given it by clients. When other clients of Mr Stakelum required foreign currency for Irish pounds, he would get it for them from Mr Traynor.
